Peaks and Valleys

“As a kid in Miami, I thought I knew heat. In the mornings before school, the windows of my parents’ house would be fogged with humidity, as if the swamp of South Florida were trying to press its way in. As an adult in Los Angeles, I thought I knew heat — that sizzling dryness that arrives each summer and fall, curing the grasses and prickling the skin. But never have I felt anything like Death Valley last week.” Hayley Smith on a death in Death Valley. I searched hell on Earth for a story. What I found will haunt me forever.

+ “The 68-year-old covers his windows with mattress foam to insulate against the heat and sleeps in the concrete basement. He knows high temperatures can cause heat stroke and death, and his lung condition makes him more susceptible. But the retired brick layer, who survives on about $1,000 a month largely from Social Security, says air conditioning is out of reach. ‘Take me about 12 years to save up for something like that.” Record heat waves illuminate plight of poorest Americans who suffer without air conditioning.

+ It was hot enough at Zion National Park for rangers to bake cookies in a parked car.

+ A headline for an era: Calif. home in danger of sliding into the sea is for sale at a deep discount.